Old Iron, Timeless Things in a Garden

I love cemeteries.  Especially the older ones.  Often when I am taking photos there, I find beautiful old iron work that has stood the test of time, much better than even the stones sometimes.  Once I took a picture of a fence post finial, and I hated the background noise.  It distracted so much from the picture that I longed for the day that I could erase the background and do something interesting with the finial. I have put it off for several years.  So recently, I thought of it and found the old picture, removed the ugly background, and began to let my imagination fill in the background possiblities.

Life is like that.  In order to focus on the clear picture of how God sees us, it is necessary to get rid of the noisy surroundings of ugly things in our life.  Since we can't do it literally, the only way we can is in prayer. But sometimes, cleaning the background slate leaves a void where something should be.

Us standing alone with only a clean slate is ... well, Lonely!  Choosing to see ourselves amidst beauty is not a bad act of faith. I believe that if we ask God to help us visualize where he wants us to be, he will begin to draw an image into which we can place our faith. Now God is a little like me when I am playing with backgrounds.  He allows us to have a variety of visual pictures, and sometimes multiple offers from those who would lead us into places where we could be successful.  But eventually, if we don't commit headlong to one image, better ones may unfold. And eventually, the best one, where God wants us to be, becomes clear.

In the cemetery or garden where the iron post is planted, it ages and weathers, takes on a patina, and things grow on it.  It may rust over time. But it stands through the storms, and elements.  Only when it's foundation is removed or washing away, do we find them leaning or less stable. Through out the years, so much around it can change. But the iron post remains pretty much in the place where it is placed.  Salvation is like that. We remain in our place of salvation although everything around us can change. If I ever get to make my garden the way I really want it, there must be some iron fencing. And I hope some pretty things will use it for support. I also hope that it will remain many years into the future for someone else to see, and know that there was a time when a garden was loved well enough for someone to place something timeless in it or around it.

I wish I could stand like an iron fencepost, standing against the background of noisy loud unpleasant surroundings, and in the end have people know that where God placed me, he kept my foundation solid, and he allowed my surroundings to change, but he remained changeless in me.

Lord, Help us visualize the  background of our lives the way you would design it to be. And help us work toward making the garden where we stand be that beautiful but ever changing place. But let us stand, forever in the place where time can not erode the fact that - we stand secure where we are planted by you. AMEN

Missionaries on My Mind

I awoke to a beautiful morning, and in spite of financial weights, felt safe in my home, and alive. Then the news reminded me that there are a lot of places in this world where that would not be true. And my next thought was for missionary friends of mine. I don't wish to stay long this morning, because I want my garden prayer to be focused. I simply ask the Lord to bless and protect missionaries around the world, today especially, because He brought them to my attention to pray for them.
Give them, Lord, your sheild of protection in these days of upheaval in so many countries. It is nice to think that so many people would want Peace and Democracy, but I fear that in the quest for it, many of your soldiers are placed in harms way without the benefit of anything but spriritual armour in their defense. Please put a hedge about them today, and protect them all over the world. As Americans are pulled from the places where dangers abound, please increase the protection for Christian men and women left in these countries, and may the Gospel be propelled by the freedom that is hoped for, rather than squelched. I am not unaware that the things happening indicate an ongoing fulfillment of prophecy in the countries of unrest in the middle east. But around the world there are missionaries in harms way. I am reminded that fulfillment of prophecy means a move ever closer to a place and time when our King returns. And until that day, it is the missionaries of the Word who reach into the darkest places to find the souls you seek to save. Bless them greatly today, I pray. AMEN

"Simply to Thy Cross I Cling" by Mary Navarro

As genealogists hunting for information in

cemeteries across the Eastern US, my husband

and I find thousands of indications of faith

among our ancestors. But my favorite testimony of all time is written on a base plate stone that supports a very realistic looking angel statue in Key West Florida.  The stones there are bleached whiter than stones in some cemeteries. And some of the graves are above ground, due to the threat of flooding I suppose. But the beauty of this marker is remarkable whether or not you draw close enough to read the stone. One of the angel's hands is formed to hold the stem(s) of flowers, and a dried Gladiola was there at the time. I smiled when I saw it because Glads are one of my favorite flowers. A wreath was held by the left hand, and I am not sure of its significance, but it was the stone that held the most impact for me. I shall never forget this lady because of what was written on her stone:

         Mary Navarro

         1863 - 1907
"Simply To Thy Cross
           I Cling"

Everytime a hurricane threatens the Key West, Florida area I pray that nothing will happen to that statue and it's base plate, or of course to Mary's plot. I felt as if I were standing by the grave of a friend. I never knew Mary, and know nothing of her family or her life.  I only know that at age 43, Mary's simple testimony was that she only was clinging to the Cross of our Savoir. I hope to see her one day in Heaven. It is said that this cemetery at the heart of the township of Key West is one of the most visited cemeteries in the US.  I can only hope that many a visitor has been drawn to that beautiful angel, and read the testimony of Mary Navarro who had the faith to write her testimony for all to see.  Thank you Mary.  I hope to visit your beautiful resting place once more in my life and I hope your angel will still be standing there.  You knew you had angels watching over you, and you knew where to place your faith. 

Lord, I can't think of a more fitting spot to place the message of the cross, and I thank you for Mary who was thinking of how people might be led to think about you when they visited this lovely old cemetery. I pray once more as I often have, that someone will read Mary's note and be led to cling to the cross as she had. Let her testimony direct others to a loving savior, to whom they may cling in life and in death. AMEN

Noah's great big boat

Sometimes it is tough to do what you know God has you doing. It seems that so many other people think you should be doing something you are not. And what you are doing doesn't suit many people. I have tried so often to get a job doing something besides making flower arrangements. I have been treated like I was unintelligent, because I was a floral designer. I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I had gone on to college and used my 4.2 grade average, and done what all my years of advanced education had me on track to do.  Life didn't turn out the way I planned it. Money was the biggest culprit, but love was also a reason why I changed my direction. So why don't I believe I should feel like a failure when here I am again, wondering what God is doing in my life now.  It certainly isn't what I planned, and it isn't what everyone else thinks I should be doing.  However, I am sure I am where God put me.
And I look back to someone else who God put in a place that took way too long to suit other people, who was doing something that made no sense to anyone, that didn't pay up front, and purhaps never in money. That someone made a great big boat, and his name was Noah.  Noah knew how to make the most important Boat ever made.  So Noah was being who God made him to be, in the place God put him. Out of a job so to speak for a very long time.
I am an artist. I have been an artist for all my life and God has put me in a place that I must be an artist and learn to be better at it. 
Now, my work will never save lives or be the best there ever was, but it will be true to who I am and where God put me for now.  So I am waiting on the Lord, but not waiting without being who I am. It is all I know to do.
There are a lot of people around me who are in a place where God has suddenly put them. It is not where they want to be. I see sickness, pain, loss, and so much more in all the lives of my friends.  Their families are hurting. 

Noah asked anyone who would to come in to the safety of the Ark. All we can do sometimes is ride out the storm, and it will often be strong enough to wash our world away.  So, what else is there to do but remember Noah, and God's promises to us. I really feel as if I have been through the roughest part of my storm, for now, and I am like Noah standing on the deck of his ship, letting the doves out to see if the water has receded.  That too is a place to be when God wants you to be there. Can you imagine what it would have been like for Noah's family if they had tried to leave the ark too soon? 
I pray for my friends and thier families, Lord, for some await the storm, some are in thier storm, and some await the day when you will allow them again onto dry land.  Let them all know they are where you want them to be. And for any who are building their future, give them strength to complete the task before the storms come.  Amen

In the Garden - a hymn

  As I was searching through old hymns, snippetts of an old song began to play in my head, but I just couldn't remember more than one complete line..."I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses...." I knew this song was more familiar to me than that. What made me sad, was these are the songs I loved and no one sang them much anymore. So I began to sing it out loud. And after about the second or third time..."and the voice I hear, something..on my ear??? La la "son of God..something something." Pause. And then: "And he walks with me, and he talks with me, and he tells me I am his own."  HOW could I have forgotten. What is the name of that song? "And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known!"  "What a theme song for my blog I thought."

Could it be in my old hymnal? Oh please be in my old hymnal. In the back of the hymnal an index of "first lines in lower caps" of the songs. And there it was: IN THE GARDEN, by C. Austin Miles.

"He speaks and the sound of His voice Is so sweet the birds hush their singing, And the melody That He gave to me, Within my heart is ringing." is vs 2.

These beautiful old songs are now part of the public domain, but it was originally copyrighted in 1912, and was used by permission in the 1940 copyrighted version of the Broadman Hymnal, by Broadman Press out of Nashville, TN. But now I am curious about Austin Miles.

Charles Austin Miles was born January 7, 1868 in Lakehurst, N. J. He lived til March 10, 1946 when he died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (March 10 is my dad's birthday.) Also known as A.A. Payn, he was educated to be a Pharmacist. Instead, he wrote his first song, "List 'Tis Jesus Voice" in 1892 at just the age of 24. Thereafter, he worked for his Publisher, Hall-Mack Co., for 37 years. He once said that he preferred to be remembered for his gospel songs not his work, for by that he could better serve his master. "I Have A Friend" seems to have been published 2 years after his death. It was one of 18 songs he is known to have written, along with 3 songs for which he wrote the music. Those included "Somebody's Praying for You."  Others that were very familiar to me were: "Dwelling in Beulah Land," "A New Name Written Down In Glory," "Wide, Wide as the Ocean," and "Win Them One By One."

If we consider the number of years in his adult life, and realize that while working a job, he was writing still - during those 54 years before his death, he averaged a piece of music about every 2 1/2 years.

When I thought about the fact that the hymnal was published in about 1940, I realized this man was a contemporary, even in his old age, of my mother and her family. When my grandmother was young, these were new songs to them. Did they learn them and sing them in church?  What was it like to sing them for the first time? Did they know they were singing the songs that woud stick in our heads and stay in our hearts? As time goes by, I hope and pray they are not lost.

My fondest memory of this song: This was one of several that as a child I sang at the top of my voice, riding my bike as the wind challenged me to sing ever louder. Unknowingly, I was building my diaphragm, something that accidentally gave me the ability to sing nicely when I was older.  For a while anyway.

~Lord, you considered the Psalms of David worthy of saving. Please don't let these old songs be lost especially in my heart, while I continue to live. Amen~